Most Disappointing in Ohio Was Voter Turnout

The most disappointing thing about this election would have to be voter turnout. With more than 8 million registered voters in Ohio, and with less than half that out to vote, it is a real shame that more people are not interested in politics anymore. Americans are pretty good at fighting for the rights we crave, which we then choose to put aside.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State office, the election results are in and it shows a strong lean toward the GOP in all voting categories.

The U.S. Representative races were of particular interest to many Ohioans with the most important one being Republican John Boehner running in District 8 for U.S. Representative defeating Justin Coussoule 139,254 to 63, 593. Boehner is slated to become house speaker for next term.

Running for Ohio District 13 U.S. Representative seat, Republican Tom Ganley fared well in spite of himself, and though he lost still had a respectable number of votes with 92,608 in his favor, however Betty Sutton's 115,331 votes sealed his fate.

In the most interesting race for U.S. Representative for Ohio District 17 was the race with James Traficant, who spent seven years in prison after being convicted of bribery while in office. It is interesting to me that he received the number of votes that he did!

Democrat Timothy Ryan won with 100,295 votes, followed by Republican Jim Graham with 56,441 votes, and finally Independent James Traficant with 29,969 votes.

In the highly contentious race for Governor of Ohio, Republican John Kasich narrowly edged out the incumbent Governor Ted Strickland by a margin of just 97,052 votes, Strickland lost to Kasich by just 2.59%

Governor of Ohio results:

John Kasich (R) 49.33% 1,849,842 votes

Ted Strickland (D) 46.74% 1,752,790 votes
In the Ohio U.S. Senate race Republican Candidate Rob Portman soundly defeated Lee Fisher by 677,718 votes or 18.25% of the vote.

U.S. Senate results:

Rob Portman (R) 57.25% 2,125,810 votes.

Lee Fisher (D) 39% 1,448,092 votes.

Democrats were put down in the elections for Ohio House Seats with a shift from 10 - 8 Democrat majority last term, to a 5 - 13 Minority after this election! That is a very strong shift for the GOP no matter how you look at it.

With a dismal voter turnout of only 47.95% it is no wonder we can not seem to get things moving in the right direction.

Hopefully as Ohioans become more aware of the recent changes relaxing the restrictions in absentee ballot process, more people will get their votes in using that method instead.